During the summer, there are two major competitions at the Junior Level, the Junior National Duals and the Junior Nationals. This year, the Junior Duals were held on the campus of Oklahoma City University, a new program to the NAIA and an opponent of Dana College in 2006-07. Junior Nationals is held, as always in Fargo, ND in the Fargo Dome on the campus of North Dakota State University.
For Donny Altman (Derby, KS), Eric Graham (Kansas City, MO), and Brian Graham (Kansas City, MO), these two competitions have always been a big part of their summers. These three young men will all be freshman next month as they arrive on the campus of Dana College to prepare for their inaugural college wrestling season. Highly recruited, these three athletes are all ranked in the top 20 in the country in their respective weight classes and are no strangers to competing a high level.
To help prepare for Junior Duals and Junior Nationals, these athletes traveled to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO with their future Head Coach, Richard Fergola of Dana College. The future Vikings spent a week training with some of the best Juniors in the country as well as many of the University World Team members and the OTC coaching staff. "This training experience will definitely help prepare these guys for Fargo as well as what lies ahead for them in college," said Head Coach Richard Fergola.
Junior Duals was held June 28-July 2. Brian and Eric Graham of Park Hill High School in Kansas City, MO are no strangers to team success. They have been on two state championship teams at Park Hill High School, but this was no state tournament. In Greco-Roman competition, Team Missouri claimed the national title by defeating Illinois 33-28. The Graham's were competing up a weight class than they normally do and didn't see action in every dual. In the finals against Illinois, Brian Graham secured a close victory over Illinois's Volodymyr Rozdolsky Dec 0-3,3-1,4-2. Both Grahams were major contributors to the national championship for Team Missouri. Eric Graham finished the Greco-Roman competition with a 3-0 record while brother Brian went 5-1.
Altman, competing for Team Kansas was unable to bring home a team trophy, but was able to complete the competition with a 12-2 overall individual record in both Greco-Roman and Freestyle at 119 lbs which is a strong showing heading into Fargo.
Junior Nationals is only a week away and these three future Viking wrestlers will be departing for their state's respective team camps. All three wrestlers have experienced much success in Fargo with Eric Graham placing twice, Brian Graham placing three times and Altman has placed five times with two of them being national titles. This trip to Fargo will be their final stage at the junior level before they begin their college wrestling careers at Dana College.
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